Recap: 'Pretty Little Liars': Episode 16: 'Misery Loves Company'

While they are doing that – Aria has a dream or something like it with a not-so-dead Alison. Ali warns her against drinking the tea and lets her know that Mer is searching for the pages. (I don’t know how to feel about less-than-dead Ali. But her help is appreciated. What I don’t understand is why Mer even wants the pages. Why is it so important to her?)

The dream is enough to wake Aria out of her sleep and it’s then we learn that she is locked in her room. Frantically she looks around the room for a way out each time bypassing the obvious option: the windows. She breaks a mirror and creates a shiv to prepare herself for Mer’s return but like an idiot gets back in the bed. I don’t care how sick you are; this is no time to get comfortable. And you don’t let your opponent get in a position where they will be over you.

Ems and Hanna find out about what Mer has been using to put Aria to sleep by accident. Seems the pharmacist in this town doesn’t mind shouting out patient information even though his consumers are only a couple of feet away. Mer is on Clonazepam (a Stage 4 controlled substance even though the pharmacist claims it’s only a 3). The girls hit google and realize that she must be up to something shady as the drug is used for anxiety and putting naïve hoes to sleep.

Elsewhere, Spencer gets surprised at home by Toby. He brought her flowers to celebrate their anniversary. And it’s there that he sees the key he dropped during his taunting of Hanna. (Hanna brought it over to Spencer’s house when they congregated to talk about the fake interview.). He asks Spence about it. She lies like the daughter of a lawyer. And that is that. Or is it? Wait and see…

Back at the Montgomery house, Aria awakens (she fell asleep?!!) to find Mer hovering over her going all crazy eye. She found the shank and she’s none too happy about it. It’s time to teach this Liar a lesson. But she’s thrown off by a lightning strike. Aria runs out the room and heads downstairs for the telephone. Making yet another rookie mistake. Everyone knows crazy killers cut the phone lines. For her idiocy she gets a knock to the head.

But there’s hope! Emily and Hanna, apparently the only people who care about Byron and Ella’s only daughter, go to the house to check on poor neglected Aria. They are greeted by Mer in full maniac mode and somehow are still convinced to go into the basement to find Aria who is “looking for flashlights”. Of course she shuts the door and locks them down there. Is no one playing it smart today?!!!

Well. Aside from Spence of course. Because as black hooded Toby is breaking into her house to retrieve the key he spotted earlier, she is there waiting for him. She dares him to identify himself and sure enough, he turns around. How did she know? When she was at his house cooking their anniversary dinner she ran across his fake Radley Sanitarium badge. It’s heartbreaking for her and before she can fully react he runs out the door. Epic.

Back at Aria’s house, it’s Byron to the rescue. He walks in on crazy Mer. They talk ..it makes no sense and the next thing we know, he’s at the basement door looking all suspicious. He promises the girls he isn’t there to hurt them but Em and Hanna hold onto their weapons just in case. Finally we get smart!

After everything calms down, Aria and her dad are left alone (Mer has disappeared) to talk about the night Ali died and he insists that he didn’t kill her. He didn’t even pay her off the last time. And when he left she was very much alive and Spencer’s sister had just come outside to take a suspicious phone call. He didn’t want to bring it up to police because he knows how it looked/looks. But in order to restore his daugther’s faith in him he is willing to undergo an investigation by the completely inept Rosewood Police Department. Aria believes him though and proves so by burning the letters. Seems she remains stupid throughout the episode. Can’t win them all, huh?

So what did you think? Anybody else find Mer’s disappearance a little weird? She just walked out of the door? Byron still doesn’t seem innocent. He has to be holding something back; otherwise Mer was tripping for no reason at all.